19 March 2016

Welcome to Our Adventure

Good Morning and Welcome!

I've started this blog with the intention of documenting our family adventure - for our adoring fans back home (ie: the grandparents), and for the kids to read later, as even our oldest is not likely to remember this time of his life. (More on that idea later.) I also want to force myself to write more - once upon a time, I was a high school junior looking for colleges and the most important thing was that the school had a creative writing major, because I was totally going to be a writer. I seem to have gotten a bit off track - I'm a physician and a mom but not a writer. In fact for a bit there I even forgot how to be a reader of things other than buzzfeed articles and medical textbooks. That was a scary time in my intellectual life but I now declare it over.

Anyway, welcome. I feel like I've made and broken this promise a hundred times before, but it is my intention to write something every day. I won't promise it will be life-changing, or even good. Hell, I can't really promise it will even be spelled correctly. But I will write something every day. Oh also, I can't promise it will be posted every day, because we're going to some internet-free dark zones in the coming months (As I tell my 3 year old, places you can't stream Octonauts on Netflix.) But I will post when I get back to civilization.

And now I will introduce the cast of characters, from the smallest to the largest.

This, as you may know, is Winnie the Pooh. Pooh joined our family before our oldest child was born. He was a baby shower gift from the wonderful Mama Sue, my mother's sister. In the past year or so, Pooh has been promoted to Best Lovey, and his presence is requested on all trips out of the house from preschool (where we all know Toys From Home are not allowed) to the grocery store to the swimming pool. This morning Pooh is my date for coffee, because even though I said "toys from home are not allowed in the classroom" approximately 49 times, Ms. Devon only had to say it once and then Pooh was thrust into my hands with instructions to "take good care of him."

Every time we leave the house, Bear asks to bring Pooh. I explain why this is a bad idea, leaning heavily on "I don't want him to get lost," and "He will get too dirty." Bear counters with "I'll keep track of him," which is his version of "I'll write every day." I relent anyway, and then Pooh does indeed get lost and/or dirty. When Benjamin takes Bear out he just says, "No, Pooh stays home." There are nine seconds of crying and then the whole thing blows over. Still, I never seem to learn. Or rather, I feel this is my part in this particular parenting ritual. Anyway, if we don't lose Pooh on this upcoming trip, it will be a true miracle.

Next smallest family member: Pax

Pax is three months old, and I can already tell she is going to be full of spunk. Which is kind of what I expect to happen when I name a child "Peace." She's pretty busy doing baby things - like sleeping only when it is not convenient for her parents and learning to control the movement of her hands. In many ways she is benefiting from being the second-born child - there's less experimenting with parenting methods (we're attachment parenting! no, we're sleep training!) and diapering systems, the breast feeding is going smoother, etc. But the degree to which her life is simply scheduled around her brother's needs is kind of impressive. Her brother is what we call a "high needs" child at this age, and she is a pretty easy-going baby. Well, an easy-going baby by our standards. She does not enjoy sleeping anywhere other than in her car seat or on an adult. And she does not enjoy being awake anywhere other than on an adult. With this kid, you are pretty much down an arm at all times.

This seems normal to me, but every once in a while I encounter another baby doing something crazy like lying on the floor playing with toys or sleeping alone in a crib. That is not Pax. Pax sleeps best snuggled up on her daddy's chest in the recliner or in bed with me on the futon. In our upcoming travels, the pack N' play did not make the packing list.

She loves her brother already. He bounces up to her with his three million watts of energy and gets right in her face and she just smiiiiiles so big. She also gives big smiles to her dad, and reaches up to grab onto his beard. She has just started making some cooing sounds. I'm so excited to watch her grow up, especially this early speech-developing part.

And well, dear readers (both of you?), I will have to stop here for today as it is almost time to pick up the Big Kid from school.